Which fuels should the EU back for shipping?

Homegrown renewable hydrogen-based fuels can decarbonise the shipping sector, reinforce Europe’s energy sovereignty and provide thousands of new jobs.

When deciding which fuels to back, the EU should focus on three criteria:

• Sustainable - ensure real emissions reductions across the entire lifecycle, avoiding harmful trade-offs such as deforestation or food security impacts.

• Scalable - able to meet European shipping’s energy demand without supply constraints.

• Strategic & Sovereign - leverage Europe’s renewable energy potential and industrial capacity to reduce reliance on imports and create local jobs.

It is crucial that the EU avoids promoting and investing in the wrong solutions. Fossil LNG and crop-based biofuels do not meet the EU’s strategic and environmental criteria. They risk prolonging Europe’s energy dependence on imported fossil fuels and undermining climate action.

While advanced biofuels produced from certain European feedstocks can be sustainable, their limited availability makes them a risky choice for a European industrial strategy, which depends on achieving scale to be competitive.

For the EU’s clean industrialisation to succeed, EU Maritime Strategy and Sustainable Transport Investment Plan should prioritise green hydrogen and e-fuels, such as e-ammonia and e-methanol. These are the only fuels that are sustainable, scalable, strategic and sovereign.